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Question

Strange system freezes

Apr 23, 2015 3:47PM PDT

Few weeks ago I changed RAM in the computer, formatted disk, installed new Windows 7 64bit. Few days it was OK, then I installed several programs and system started freezing in some situations. First it happened often in Firefox, now rarely. Sometimes in certain 2D games it happens. When I run tabletop game in roll20.net site it is freezing all the time. Freezes take about 3-4 seconds.

I tested disk and memory for errors on another forum, did antivirus scans and sent some reports to people to fix viruses manually, nothing helped. What to do?

Hijackthis: http://wklej.org/id/1695350/

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Diagnostics
Apr 23, 2015 5:57PM PDT

Have you run the windows memtest utility or any non-OS diagnostic utilities? Have you fiddled with the Startup and Services programs in the msconfig utility?

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answer to clarification request
Apr 25, 2015 3:58PM PDT

I did run memory test program that required boot CD, I run disk checks. I don't know what would I do with startup and services.

I did run adwcleaner, it removed 2 things, didn't help.

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Answer
on an off chance.....
Apr 24, 2015 12:16AM PDT

....are you using an Advance Format Disk and did you properly align it when you formatted it. If you used an older utility to format the disk, instead of letting Windows 7 or the drive manufacturer's software do it, then it might not be properly aligned. So far I've only heard of this impacting performance speed for small files mostly, but maybe it also can cause such a problem that's not widely recognized yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848035%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

http://www.seagate.com/tech-insights/advanced-format-4k-sector-hard-drives-master-ti/

If the starting partition is aligned to the first megabyte or starts on sector 2048 instead of 63, then you should be OK in regard to this.

This is part of the reason most say to use the Windows 7 disk to format and partition a disk before installing the system, because things have changed since XP and Vista pre SP1.

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also in relation to above;
Apr 24, 2015 12:35AM PDT
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/218571en?language=en_US

This one below gives you the same capability that Linux's GParted program has, to view each partitions "offset", or starting sector, to determine if a drive is properly aligned for the newer 4K and advanced format drives. Almost any drive now that is 1TB or above uses the 4K sector size since about 2011, and it started in 2009. For some reason Microsoft has never considered it necessary to include that capability in their operating systems.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/214391en?popup=true&language=en_US

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2510009

Here's an example of what I mean, another person having problems accessing files and getting freezes ONLY on a "Advanced" 4K format drive, but not on his older drives which probably aren't Advanced Format 4K models. It might be adding the Service Pack to your Windows 7 will correct the problem (this thread was in 2012) since it has a new driver for the Advanced Format drives included in it.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848035%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
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system information in windows
Apr 24, 2015 1:38AM PDT

Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information > Storage > Disks

On the right side you can see detailed information on your hard drive. If it's NOT an Advanced Format Drive, then it is OK to have partition offset 32,256 bytes, which is 64 sectors, the standard MBR setup.

If it is an Advanced Format Drive or 4K drive, then it SHOULD be set so the partition offset is 1,048,576 bytes which is same as a one megabyte (or mebibyte MiB) offset which properly aligns the drive for 4K sector sizes. If you have more than one partition on the drive, each one should be aligned to the start of a new physical megabyte on the disk. Windows 7 after SP1 is added is supposed to do this I think. If not, then you can set up partitions using latest GParted (a linux program) and it will do so.

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disk partitions
Apr 25, 2015 3:59PM PDT

I don't have advanced format, I have old disk and old computer. I created partition with win7 installer, but I also have some old WinXP partition on the disk.

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then it seems....
Apr 25, 2015 11:46PM PDT

....it's all related ONLY to something else you installed after windows 7 was installed. Have you used MalwareBytes to scan the computer? Only you know what was installed other than W7. Maybe you can uninstall some of them, one by one, test, see if that corrects the problem. If done one by one, hopefully discover the problem software.

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solutions
Apr 26, 2015 1:22AM PDT

I tried MalwareBytes, uninstalling programs, or rather system recovery, it didn't help.

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If a fresh install or factory recovery fails.
Apr 26, 2015 1:27AM PDT
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Answer
The log looks normal to me.
Apr 24, 2015 3:03AM PDT